All Hall high schools expected to meet AYP requirements

Based on preliminary data, the Hall County school system expects all six of its high schools to make "adequate yearly progress" this year, Superintendent Will Schofield said.

Lanier Career Academy, its evening high school, doesn’t have enough students in any "subgroup" — or category of students based on race, ethnicity and other factors — to be considered for making adequate progress.

Additionally, the high schools showed improvement in their graduation rate, particularly at East Hall and West Hall high schools, Schofield said.

The good news follows the district’s discovery last week that, based on early numbers, Lyman Hall and Myers elementary schools will shed their "needs-improvement" labels this year, as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

And East Hall Middle, which has been steeped in needs-improvement for eight years, will make adequate progress.

The state uses basic-skills tests, the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests for elementary and middle schools and the Georgia High School Graduation Tests for high schools, to determine whether schools make adequate progress.

Schofield said the district has several schools that could go either way in making adequate progress. Basic-skills retests during the summer could make the difference.

Associate superintendent David Shumake of Gainesville city schools declined to release any preliminary results.

"I do not want to give ... information that seems to change on the AYP report on a weekly basis," he said.